What Were the Social, Economic and Political Effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade of West Africa?

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The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade was the enslavement and transportation, primarily of African people to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Slave Trade essentially worked like a triangle between Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This was affected socially, economically and politically. Socially the effects on the transatlantic slave trade on West Africa, was firstly the robbing of the countries human resources, broadly put as depopulation. Africa was the closest source of a guaranteed supply of slaves for the Europeans because China and India were too far away, so the Africans were captured shipped and sold in the Americas, were deprived of their family, their language and most of their homeland, and many perished on their way to the ‘New World.’ There was also a gender imbalance, most of the African slaves were men, and reproduction was limited, so slave owners had to depend on new arrivals to repopulate the labour population. In Africa, great plantations of female slaves were the norm, such as in Dahomy, West Africa and they asserted power because of their large numbers. The African Kingdoms were easily overcome, so the supply was readily available. One of these Kingdoms dated back to 1483, was the Kongo (Congo) Kingdom. The Portuguese began a long-term relationship with the Kongo Kingdom. Explorer Diogo Cão took Kongo emissaries back with him to Portugal and later returned to Africa with European soldiers, priests and goods; this continued with the Kongo, that they exported slaves and ivory in exchange for European luxury goods. The slaves had a certain fear towards to the level of fear towards the Europeans, so few of them would disobey their slave owners and do unacceptable things. If they did they would face forms of punishment such as public torture and other slaves
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